Zoos Cannot Replicate Wild Animals' Habitats
Zoos claim to educate people and preserve
species, but they usually fall short on both counts. Most zoo enclosures are cramped
and barren. Rather than promoting respect for or understanding of animals,
signs often provide little more info rmation
than an animal’s diet, and natural range. Animals’ normal behavior is seldom
discussed, much less observed, because their natural needs are rarely met.
Birds’ wings may be clipped so that they cannot fly, aquatic animals often go
without adequate space to accommodate their natural swimming patterns, and many
animals who live in large herds or
family groups in the wild are kept alone or, at most, in pairs. Natural hunting
and mating behaviors are virtually eliminated by regulated feeding and breeding
regimens. Animals are closely confined, lack privacy, and have little opportunity
for mental stimulation or physical exercise. These conditions often result in “zoochosis”—abnormal
and self-destructive behaviors such as pacing, swaying, self mutilation, and excessive
licking. An Oxford
University study based on
four decades of observing animals in captivity and in the wild found that
animals such as polar bears, lions, tigers, and cheetahs “show the most
evidence of stress and/or psychological dysfunction in captivity” and concluded
that “the keeping of naturally wide-ranging carnivores should be either
fundamentally improved or phased out.”
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animals are important factor in the world to humans, they can be food for us, they can be help by eating seeds and the seeds coming back out fertilized, all interesting things.
Zoos are very proactive in protecting, breeding and preserving endangered animals . Zoos can provide a natural habitat, like the ones they originated form. When animals become endangered or their habitat becomes endangered, zoos can help grow their population back to normal. Some zoos have set up reserves for endangered animals to walk free without hunters or other human contact.
Animals can thrive in zoos because their habitats are similar. Habitats in the wild are being destroyed every day. Farmers and meager paper plants destroy hundreds of acres a day.
the Virginia Zoo and Oregon zoo are just two of the hundreds of zoos that breed, protect rebild and then set free animals. some animals get hurt in the wild to and cant serviv on their own. ZOOS ARE GOOD
I suppose it could be argued that a zoo could create a reasonable environment for something like a butterfly. But then again, some butterflies migrate thousands of miles each year! In my view, it is self-evident that a zoo cannot create a "natural" environment for an elephant, a walrus, a lion, a rhinocerous, etc. Whether what the zoos do create is "comfortable" or not - well, you'll have to ask the animals. Alligators seem happy enough in zoos, but who knows?
I'm not A PETA person. I think most of them have too much time on their hands. But I don't see the value of zoos in the 21st century. I think there is a level of cruelty there, borne out willfully ignoring our increasing knowledge of animal behavior and evolution. If I were king, I would phase them out.